~ After 50 years, clearly gaming is lifelong

The store is…. sort of …. Live

I made my predictions on the cost of Chaotic Matter (IE, premium currency) in Ingress. So how did I stack up to the reality ?

Prediction :

7,000 – $5

15,000 – $10

32,000 – $25

90,000 – $50

200,000 – $100

Reality :

2,500 – $2

7,000 – $5

15,000 – $10

32,000 – $20

90,000 – $50

200,000 – $100

I forgot to predict the 2,500 CM one, and was $5 off on the 32,000 one. Not bad, Doc. Now all I want to do is spend the approx $10 it will cost for five of the new key capsules.

The most salient feature of the new store, however, appears to be…. access. The guys who tear down the code determined each player has a 1% chance to get access to the store. What. The. Frog.

On the one hand, I can see that if you’re worried all your players are going to buy things immediately you need to limit access so it doesn’t crash. I get that, I really do. On the other hand, I have never heard of a lottery to access a new feature in a software product. I really want these key capsules, especially at that price point. And I can’t get it because I didn’t get the lucky random dice roll. And – it’s hard to believe you want to OPEN UP YOUR STORE, and then NOT ALLOW PEOPLE TO BUY.

The rumor is, that there is a check each time you open up the scanner to see if your number comes up and you get access to the store. So a bunch of players (me included) started to kill the app, reopen it, and see if the store is there. 10 times was enough for me; it didn’t appear and I gave up. This is a server side update, perhaps the random die roll is done server side too.

How often are they rolling the dice for us ? Daily makes sense, if they’re worried about the scalability of their store. At least, as much sense as can be gleaned from a feature where THEY WON’T TAKE YOUR MONEY, until a random die roll permits you. So I’m going to close the app and restart it at least once a day, until I get access.

It’s a bit amazing, actually, that the app will run often for days at a time. Ingress being my second job, I kind of want the app running constantly – or the Intel Map, where I can get portal capture updates. And it delivers without a fuss. So I’ll have to remember to kill it nightly and hope for the best.

So far, I haven’t seen a report on the actual use of the key capsules, I suppose it will be *soon* . And then there’s the other items, “Beacons” – self explantory? I think so – and “Frakkers” – Double hack output for 10 minutes, with a cap around 150 hacks. They’re priced somewhere around $1 and $2 each, depending on how the exact conversion math works. Maybe I’ll have to buy them and see how they work.

And in the meantime, I’m playing a bit more casually. I don’t feel the need to maximize my Ingress time. I’m hacking less, building less, and blowing things up when I’m close to them. And it’s OK – the news about the store has reinvigorated me. Maybe they’ll sell something else I’d really like for a few bucks, sometime soon.